Learning to follow God and His desire for our lives

Tag Archives: Christianity

There is nothing like Texas in the summer time! I’ve lived other places that were hot, Phoenix, Arizona for example, but it is a different kind of heat! I know some people think that is just a cliche’, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”, but it is true! The heat in Arizona is much different from the heat here in good ole southeast Texas! In Phoenix, a summer day is very likely to hit close to 110+ on the thermometer, but it still feels hotter here with the temp being around 95 or so! The humidity definitely has something to do with the way the heat actually FEELS! You just feel so sticky! I have never been a fan of heat. I will take a cold day anytime over a hot day. I have always said that I could always put more clothes on, or cover up in more blankets, but there is only so much you can take off when you are trying to cool off!! Especially if you are in a public place!

Gerald is just an all around outdoors guy! He may burn up, but he would much rather be outside doing something than inside. I ca/n’t even begin to tell you the number of times he has gone through more than 3 shirts in a single day because he soaks them in sweat!! Me, on the other hand, when the temps get above 75-80, you are going to have a tough time getting me outside! Unless there is water up to my neck involved! And hopefully that water will be in the shade! I burn too easily. I used to think there was no big deal to getting sunburned, except that it hurt! But, since reaching my 40’s, and having a father who had to have several skin cancers removed because of sun exposure, I have decided that the nice, golden brown skin isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I thank God for air conditioning!!

Since my back has gotten so bad, I have not been able to spend hardly any time in my scrap room. Well, there are more reasons than just my back. We also have house guests living with us temporarily. How long is temporarily supposed to be anyway? Just kidding!! I am very happy to have my son and his family staying with us until they can get moved into their own place. It’s just really difficult to have to clear out a room that is FULL of things that need to be stored away, or thrown away, and find somewhere else to put them, when the rest of the house is already filled to the brim with belongings! God has most definitely richly blessed us with material things! We have had to resort to storing a lot of the stuff in none other than my scrap room! We also are using our guest bathroom (that is not completed from when we started remodeling it about two years ago, I think!), for additional storage. So this leaves us with only one bathroom as well!! Yes, we are all cramped! I do have a trail in my scrap room so that I can move around my desk and get to my printer and some other things. But, especially with my back problems, it is difficult to weave in and out of things to get to that one particular item that I just know is in that box at the bottom of that pile!!

Oh well, another month or two and they will get to move out and I will get my spare bedroom back, and I will then convert it into a closet/storage room! I know, why am I making it into a closet? Well, several reasons actually!

First of all, I need a bigger closet!! My closet, which Gerald enlarged for me, and now it takes WAY too much space from our bedroom, is over-flowing! So, the plan is that I will get two of those rolling clothing racks for my closet, and they will be in the spare bedroom because we are going to tear out my closet to give us more room in the bedroom. I just hope I can get by with only two of these racks! We shall see, and if need be, I will get a third!! I will also have an extra dresser in the “closet” so I can store my off season clothes away without putting them in plastic bags and not setting an eye on them again for a couple of years because I forgot where I put them! The secondary idea behind the closet in the spare room is that, by taking out my present closet, we will actually have room for the bedroom furniture that I so dearly love, and have room to actually move around in more than a minute 1-1 1/2 feet of space on either side of the bed! We will also be able to get all the “extra stuff” out of that second bathroom and hopefully, FINALLY FINISH IT!! We will see about that!

I’m not giving up on the idea of us getting a new house! We have wanted to either build a house, or buy a new double wide that will give us PLENTY of space, for several years now. We are much in prayer about that! If God wants us to have a bigger, better house, then it will happen. I found a house plan that I am really fond of, and believe it or not, it is a single story! I have always wanted a two story house, but if God wants us in a new house, I will be just as happy with a single like this plan. Several other things have to fall into place before this can happen though. So, again, we are praying that it all works out!

Back to my scrap room for a minute now. I finally got in there yesterday and actually started doing some more scrapping! I completed two pages in about three hours and I think they turned out really cute! The projects that I have to work on as of today include: pages for Lauren, who is paying me to create pages for her daughters’ scrapbook! Well, poor thing, she has been so patient with me! It has probably been pretty close to a year since I gave her the first set of pages that I had done! I am planning, with God’s help, to be able to contact her in about 2-3 weeks, and give her many more pages! If I can just get in there and work like I did yesterday, it won’t be a problem!

The second project I am working on is an album for our church, Peachtree Baptist Church. I am creating an album on the construction and activities of our new Family Life Center! I cannot even begin to tell you how honored I felt when Jared asked me if I would do this! To be asked to create something like this to honor God and his gifts to us, I feel very inadequate! But, I am going to give it my all and pray that people enjoy looking at it, and God will get all the praise and glory! Without Him, I would not be doing this!

Then there is my third project. This project is very special. I am creating an album for a young family, in remembrance of their son and brother, Baby Thomas. Baby Thomas was born with a birth defect which was severe enough that his little body could not sustain life. Sadly, this little angel went to be with Jesus just a couple of days after entering this world, and blessing everyone who had any kind of contact with him or his loving family. This family suffered a loss that I can not even begin to try to imagine! The pain that they deal with on a daily basis is just gut-wrenching. God definitely knew what he was doing though. He sent this little angel to earth to touch the hearts of at least several hundred people, many who never even met him! The story of the journey this family has taken from the day they found out about his abnormality, has been very eloquently shared with many, many people, through a simple blog, “The Little Journey of Baby Thomas”, written by his mother, Holly. You can check it out here -> thelittlejourneyofbabythomas.blogspot.com/ . Anyway, I am working on an album for this family and I want it to be perfect for them! I pray that God helps me to create pages for this album that will be at least half as special and wonderful as Baby Thomas and his family. They deserve the absolute best!

Finally, I am hoping that I can jump-start my Stampin’ Up! business. I have to sell at least $300 by the end of June in order to remain an active demonstrator, and I really want to be able to remain active. I don’t know if I am going to be lucky enough to sell that much in a two week time span or not, but I plan to try! With God’s help, I will get it done, but only if it is His will. Sometimes, Gods will for us is so hard for us to understand. We know that we really want to work hard for this particular item or job or whatever! But, if it is not Gods will, we will not succeed at whatever we are attempting to do. So, I pray that my succeeding with this business is within Gods will, because it is something that I really enjoy doing, and would love to be able to contribute to our family finances through this. Only time will tell, but I am going to be praying!

Well, I have plenty of scrapbooking to do, so I am going to get busy with that! If you are interested in anything related to scrapbooking, card making, or any type of paper crafting, please email me, visit my Stampin’ Up! site, or comment here, and I will be happy to help you! I look forward to hearing from you!

Even though we had a very small group at church last night, we had a good study of a portion of the book of Mark. Chapter 8,verses 22-26, Jesus heals a blind man. For me, the interesting part is the fact that Jesus heals the blind man, but He doesn’t do it all at once. He does it in steps. First he places his hands on the mans eyes and partially heals him, the mans vision is blurry. When Jesus places His hands over the mans eyes a second time, the man is able to see! He sees everything very clearly! Jesus tells the man to go home and tell no one.

We all know that Jesus was in the business of performing miracles and this was one of them. But this is one time when Jesus did not perform the entire miracle in one single touch. His first touch gave the man blurry vision. It was Jesus’ second touch that cleared the mans vision totally.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I can relate this to my own life very well. For several months now I have felt God asking me to do something for Him. I know this because I can feel God calling me, but I have not been able to figure out what it is He wants me to do. I ask someone how I can figure it out and they usually tell me to read my Bible, “Look in His word and you will find your answer”. OK, but….where do I look? The Bible is a pretty long book, and while I do plan to read all of it eventually, I surely hope that I don’t have to read the entire book to figure out what it is that God wants me to do!

Well, after reading and discussing this short passage last night at church, actually it was a few days ago, but I finally realized something about what God was telling me. He is leading me to what I am to do, one step at a time, not in one single touch! Just like with the restoration of the blind mans vision, my calling was not going to come to me in one simple step. But God was going to be in control all the way, and He is in control.,

Over the past several weeks, I have heard some sermons that really stomped on my toes. I mean, the sermons have been just for me it seems!! Each has taught me a lesson about myself and my relationship with God that I probably would not have learned, or figured out for myself, for a pretty good while! So, God has been using the sermons I am hearing, and bless my pastor’s heart for teaching these lessons so well! I thank God for Brother Jared all the time. He is an absolutely wonderful pastor!

And then there are the Sunday school lessons that also seem like they have been written just for me. In each lesson, God reveals a little more of what I need to know. God is teaching me how to be more like Jesus, one step at a time. God knows what books I need to be lead to read and He leads me to them. He knows what lessons I need and what setting I need to receive these lessons in.

God is preparing me for something. I don’t know what God’s plans for me are, but I do know that at this time He is teaching me and showing me things that I need to do or change about myself. He is showing me where I need to make improvements in my life in order to be more Christ-like. God is showing me how a simple improvement or change, such as stopping and thinking something through before just diving off into it, can bring me closer to Him and to Jesus.

When I finally realized that God was not going to pull me into some big project right off the bat, but is preparing me very patiently for whatever task it is He has for me, I was very relieved. I know God is not going to ask me to do something unless He knows I am capable of doing it. Being capable and being willing are two different things though, and I have to be both. I have been willing for a while now, but I wasn’t stopping long enough to hear what God was trying to tell me. So, He took charge and made sure that I am hearing the right things from the pulpit of my church, and in my Sunday school class. God is helping me to improve my character, to be a better person, more Christ-like. I am so thankful that God is patient with me, because He knows how easily I can get frustrated and typically that leads to my deciding to take a different path. So God has been teaching me in just the right way for me, slowly and with great patience.

Isn’t that just the most amazing thing in the world? That God knows exactly what I need to hear, when and how. It is very amazing, but not surprising. He is GOD!! He knows all! He already knows how my story is going to end. He is just working with me right now, preparing me for something much more than my everyday life. It may be something as simple as teaching someone something, or who knows. With God, there is no limit to what kind of gifts and opportunities He can give me, if He chooses.

Well, I am going to read my Sunday school lesson for next Sunday and see how it applies to me, and I am 110% positive that it will definitely apply to me! Thank you God, for being so patient with me.